Proper 28: Epistle, 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11               

1 Thessalonians 5:1-11

Last week’s epistle reading presented Paul giving comfort to a young Christian congregation who were confused and had been misled regarding the Day of the Lord. Some believed they had missed the consummation and the full promises of the Savior. Paul corrected their thinking with the truth of the Lord and in our reading this week he adds the finishing touches.

Paul begins here writing, “Now concerning the times and the seasons brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you” (5:1) and then continues to write. That always makes me chuckle. But he is saying that they need to receive no new revelation or “ground rules” about the way things will unfold in the end. First and foremost he is moving them toward trust in what they have received and Who they know. That’s always the task for and test of a faithful teacher of the Word. Remember that.

The day of the end will come like a thief in the night, he says. Not that it should catch us by surprise. He just doesn’t want us to close our business and sit on a hill waiting. The eminent British preacher Charles Spurgeon, when approached in a London restaurant, was asked by a newspaperman, “Dr. Spurgeon, if you knew the Lord Jesus were returning tonight what would you do?” Dr. Spurgeon looked across the table, reached for the salt and said, “I’d finish my roast.” His whole life was lived with great anticipation of Jesus’ return. Not anxiety over it.

What would you do? Perhaps warn a loved one just one more time? Mow your lawn? Perhaps. But that is precisely why He does not tell us the moment. Oh we should and must hunger for His sure (and I do believe soon) return. We must ever be proclaiming and sharing the hope we have in Jesus our Lord. But “we are not of the night,” says the apostle. We are not destined for wrath, but to obtain salvation, and that at just the right moment. 

He closes, “Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing” (5:11). Really there is no other message for brothers and sisters in Christ to share in the family. Look up! Be ready! Be encouraged!